The Captain and the Cook
by Keyrie Youngblood
Summary: Chapters 3 and 4 are up after a long creative slump. This fanfic is set several years after the story of Treasure Planet, and focuses on Silver, a pirate captain again, doing what he does best: treasure hunting! I upped the rating a bit.
1. The Cook

Disclaimer: Silver, Jim and the purps are copyright Disney and all the blokes who created them, drew them, etc., etc. No suey for you-ey.

_The Captain and the Cook_

The aroma of baking Punnas bread mixed with a pungent roast settled in his nostrils and made his mouth water as he stumped down the stairs to the galley. The cook was humming merrily, heedless of him. The tune was airy and quick and made him smile. Even the clang of pans and the loud _whoosh_ of the oven flames could not dampen the sound. The cook crossed the kitchen with a twirling skip, artfully avoiding the huge array of pots, pans and utensils hanging from the ceiling in one sweeping motion and the gaping maw of the furnace in another.

He put his meaty hands on his wide hips, smiling in spite of himself. "Well well, we haven't even set sail yet and here ye are, already makin' us a right feast. Careful now, that ye don' use up all our rations," he tried a warning glare, but failed.

The cook spun around, a stirring spoon halfway to her lips, and stared at him wide-eyed. "Oh, Silver! Good heavens, you scared me!" She clapped a hand to her chest.

"M'apologies, lassie," he said, filling his lungs to capacity with the delicious aromas, unable to deny his brain any longer.

"Oh, mine too," she said, dropping the spoon back into a tall pot behind her. "I just thought that by the time we set sail again it'd be dinnertime. And don't worry about the rations. I picked up more of almost everything when we stopped at Etridal."

The salty old captain pushed his tattered hat back and scratched his head. "Blow me down, lassie, you're nearly two steps ahead o'me. Mebbe oi should let you do the capt'nin' an' oi'll take me place slavin' in front o' the stove."

"The only thing I would be captain of is the kitchen," the cook said, her eyes downcast and her cheeks reddening. The smile she wore, small but genuine, returned Silver to the day they met.

_Flashback_

He was right proud of himself. In less than a month, he had rounded up a nice crew of 26, right down to the cabinboys and lookout. All he was missing was a cook. He strode along the creaking boardwalk, the bustle and energy of the port town all around him. To his right, ships were coming and going, most of them trafficking either illegal cargo or pirates. To his left, entrepreneurs hawked from behind their storefronts, at the same time trying to keep their rapidly-vanishing merchandise out of the hands of thieves. Drunks lay moaning in the street and whores leaned on lampposts, blowing gaudy kisses and winking as he passed. He sucked in the greasy air and smiled. This was his second home. His first, without a doubt, was on a sh...

"Extra coins, sir, if you've some to spare?" Came a soft voice from the shop he was passing. He stopped and turned. Slouched against the front of the store with his knees to his chest, was a smallish man dressed in tattered long pants and an overcoat that looked nearly big enough to fit him, Silver. The man's long, golden hair flowed down his front and obscured his downcast face. Silver briefly wondered how the man saw him passing, if he had his face buried in the voluminous arms of his coat. Propped up against his legs was a sign, made from two short planks nailed crudely together, bearing a clear, plaintive message: "WILL WORK 4 FOOD".

Instinctively, the old miser clutched his pockets, his breath already drawn to tell the man no, but suddenly he lifted his face up, and Silver was struck by the man's immaculately hairless face and his delicate features. This was no man.

"Help a girl out, will you? I promise I won't buy booze with it. All I want's a good meal down at the Red Raven." She spoke with a woman's softness, but there was a rough edge in her words, which told Silver she was no stranger to the life she was leading. "Missus Swaney makes a really good stack a' pancakes." That smile, almost invisible but speaking volumes in its simpleness, played in the corners of her mouth. Silver blinked and quickly collected himself. "Sorry, lass, oi be fresh out o'money," he lied, gripping the handful of gold in his pocket to keep it from jingling.

Instead of seeing defeat in her face, Silver received another shock when her smile widened and her striking two-toned eyes sparkled. She raised an arm and pointed at him, her finger all but swallowed by the sleeve of her coat. "I know you," she said, her eyes narrowing. "You're Long John Silver, aren't you? The pirate captain that found the Loot of A Thousand Worlds? Hell, if I had money, I'd be buying _you_ lunch." She rose creakily, as if plagued by arthritis.

_As young as she is? She barely looks twenty,_ Silver thought as she extended an open hand to him. Under the sleeves, her skin was smooth and pale, a contrast to his own sea-salted, leathery arm. He hesitated; his right hand was all metal and gears. Normally, he would not think twice of extending his cyborg arm to a stranger, but something about this girl caught him off guard. Was it her eyes, one serene grey and the other a fiery, glittering green, or was it her boldness, barely concealed by feminine modesty?

Before he could think further, she had his metal hand gripped in hers, pumping up and down firmly. "My name's Constance," she proclaimed proudly. "But don't call me that. Call me Bonnie. It's short for 'Bonfire,' a nickname I earned because of a teensy miscalculation while cooking dinner one night. But I _have _gotten much better over the years." She suddenly let go of his hand and lowered her eyes, her cheeks reddening. "Goodness, why did I tell you that? I sound like we're best friends or something. I'm sorry. It was presumptuous of me." She slid back down the wall and hugged her knees again.

_...while cooking dinner one night..._

"Anyway, it was very good to meet you, Silver. Keep up the good pirating." She settled the sign against her legs and sunk her face into the nest her arms had made for it. Silver remained motionless, the train wheels in his head turning a mile a minute.

"Ye say ye cook, lassie?" He raised a mechanical eyebrow.

Her head snapped up, confusion and hope flashing in her eyes. "Uh, y–yes, I... well, yes, I do, but..."

A lightbulb gleaming brightly over his head, he smiled broadly. "Come wid me, lass. oi'll buy ye some vittles and we'll talk."

She returned the grin and jumped up, nearly leaping into his arms. "Aye, Cap'n!"

Bonnie filled his ear with constant chatter as they walked, all her bashfulness forgotten at the promise of a warm meal. Silver glanced over at her, shrewdly sizing her up, as he had done every other creature that crossed his path. As harmless as this girl seemed, he was still a pirate, still living outside the law, still trusting no one.

But Bonnie seemed to trust him. She jabbered on about a Terraprawn she had caught once and what a difficult time she had had getting the six-foot long mollusk into a stew pot. Her openness baffled the old sea dog. She was a young woman without a home, which demanded the same distrust and wariness of all creatures that Silver possessed, and he knew she possessed it also. His instincts, honed to a point sharp enough to split a hair, told him that she had been on her own for a long time. So why had she chosen to trust him, a particularly untrustworthy man, and a dangerous one to boot?

"... so it finally died, that thing, but just when I was about to cut its ventral armor plates off, you know, to put it into the boiler, the thing suddenly starts twitching— " she flapped her arms wildly to illustrate the death throes of the Terraprawn, and Silver ducked as one overlong sleeve came close to smacking his head. He chuckled. It had been a long time since he had seen such youthful energy. Jim's face suddenly flashed in front of his eyes, and he felt nostalgia hit him square in his chest. He wondered if the boy, probably grown with a family of his own by now, remembered him.

Bonnie led him off the main boardwalk down a cobblestoned street, still chattering away. She presented to Silver a near-complete foil of his dear Jim: the boy was stoic and quiet, but she was animated and gossipy. Silver saw discontent and anger behind Jim's eyes, but her sparkling ones held only cheerfulness, though she had far less to call her own. In his mind, Silver saw Jim striding down the deck of the Legacy, his walk rigid and purposeful. Bonnie, however, was sauntering lazily beside him, as if she had not a care in the world.

But what struck at Silver's core, the one thing that he saw in this girl Bonnie that was Jim's also, was her smile. Their smiles were difficult to come by, but when one did surface, it was all Silver could do to keep his heart from exploding.

They entered a small, dimly-lit tavern, hazy with smoke. A wizened old grandmother, undoubtedly the Missus Swaney she had spoken about, raised her head from filling a tankard and waved.

" 'ello, me dear! Come, sit! Who's the big lug witcha?" She spoke in a tobacco-roughened voice, heavily cockneyed. She could have been Silver's mother.

"Missus, this big lug with me is none other than Long John Silver!" Bonnie beamed, puffing her narrow chest out.

"Bless me 'eart, love! What on earth are ye doin' wid a scallywag such as 'im?" The old woman's beady black eyes, buried deep in folds of skin, flashed menacingly.

"Gettin' a good meal, if you don't mind, Missus." Bonnie sat down at the sticky counter and patted a stool next to her, motioning Silver to sit. He did, and touched the brim of his hat politely at the old matriarch.

"Pleasure, Missus," he said. The old woman glared at him and hitched her skirt up huffily.

"A good meal, eh?" She squawked at Bonnie. "Well, oi suppose oi can't deny ye that. What'll ye have, dearie?"

"The usual, please, Missus."

"Comin' up, dearie." Missus Swaney marched into the kitchen, her wide behind swinging prissily. Bonnie rolled her eyes good-naturedly and leaned over to Silver.

"Don't mind her. She treats all her customers like the children she never had. Besides, she's not too keen on pirates. I know that comes as a shock to you in a town like this. A flock of 'em came down one day to her house and killed her husband and raped her. So I hope you can forgive her if she's less than cordial to you."

Silver shrugged. "Actually, lass, that's a warm welcome as far as oi'm concerned."

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

Silver swallowed the ale in his mouth and cleared his throat. "Ye see, lassie, oi been lookin' fer a crew fer me nex' venture an' all, an' oi got all the men oi need, save fer a cook. Then oi happ'ned upon you, an'— "

"_You _want _me_ to be your cook?" She squeaked, gaping at him.

"On'y if yer willin', lassie. It's a pretty nasty job, bein' on a ship fer months wid' a buncha pirates, 'specially fer a young lady loike you."

"No, no!" Bonnie leapt up, her eyes pleading. "I don't mind, really! I mean, I'm used to it! I've had to cook for a bunch of surveyors before! And be_lieve_ me, a team of thirty surveyors cannot _possibly_ be worse than a crew of fifty of the worst, meanest, saltiest pirates! I can hack it, really I can! I'm a really good cook! I've— "

Silver put his hands up, conscious of the dozens of pairs of eyes locked suspiciously on him. "Whoa there, slow down, lassie. It's all roight."

Bonnie bit her lip and plunked back down on her barstool. "I'm sorry. I just... this is so wonderful, because I've... I've been a cook most of my life. My parents were in a team of land surveyors, you know, going to newly-discovered planets and mapping out the terrain, seeing if it was livable, that kind of thing, and I was always the one who cooked for them and their team. My parents even joked that the only reason they had me was because none of them ever wanted to go near the cooking fire."

The swish of Missus Swaney's dress heralded the arrival of Bonnie's food: pancakes piled high on a plate, drenched with honey and surrounded by fresh-sliced purps. "There ye go, dearie. Anythin' fer you?" She spat at Silver, her coal eyes simmering.

"No, thank ye, Missus." He inclined his head and dropped three coins into her waiting hand.

"Fresh out of money, huh?" Bonnie smiled slyly up at him, her mouth full.

He shrugged.

"It's all right. I knew you were lying anyway. Most people do." She washed a bite of pancakes down with several gulps of bitter ale. Silver flashed on Jim's first taste of ale, which he spit out in a fine spray the moment it touched his tongue.

"Pardon me, lass, but... how old are ye?"

Bonnie wiped her mouth on her sleeve. "Older than I look, I can assure you of that," she said flatly.

This girl kept getting stranger and stranger.

"So do I have the job?" She looked at him expectantly.

"Of course, lassie."

She smiled her mysterious smile, and dove back into the pancakes. "So when do I report?"

"As soon as ye like, lassie. Me crew's complete now, thanks to ye. Oi've got a fine vessel docked at Tramuth, an' oi'd be glad t' take ye there if'n ye've got no other way."

"Sounds like a plan, then," she mumbled around a slice of purp. "Where are we going? I mean, now that you've got Flint's Trove under your belt, what's left to find?"

"Ah, lass, there's allas some piratin' t'be done," he smiled down at her. "But first, you need t' get yerself some proper attire. Lookit ye, goin' round in clothes roightly fittin' me, wid no shoes on ye feet. This won't do a'tall," he joked.

"If I had enough money for clothes that fit, do you think I would be on the street in the first place?" She eyed him. "Unless you're willing to foot the bill, I go as I am."

"Oi c'n foot th' bill, lassie, pay no mind t'that." He jingled the gold in his pocket, and vaguely wondered why he was suddenly being so generous.

She slowly raised her head to him, her jaw slack and her eyes large and liquid. "You... I wasn't... I was being... I wasn't serious, I mean, you don't have to... buy clothes for me, I just..." Her cheeks flashed five shades of red, and she suddenly became interested in a purp seed on her plate. "I didn't mean to say that you had to buy my clothes. I mean, a hot meal _and _a job is more than I could have ever dreamed of. I couldn't possibly ask for more."

Missus Swaney, watching them like a vulture from across the bar, glanced at Silver, and he swore he saw the ghost of a smile haunting her thin, pursed lips.

"Besides, I don't mind going like I am. This is my father's coat, and I... I like going without shoes. I feel better that way. Please, don't worry about it."

"Oi'm not worryin', lass. Oi'm doin' it out o' the goodness o' me own heart."

"Poirates 'ave 'earts? Well well." Missus Swaney bustled up and took Bonnie's empty plate. "Ye learn somethin' new every day, dearie." She smiled at Bonnie, then at Silver.

_End flashback_

"Oi, Tudd! Getchur nasty grubs outta my pot roast!" Bonnie swung a ladle viciously at a member of Silver's crew, trying to sneak a bite while her back was turned. The hulking, tentacled creature snarled wetly at Bonnie as the ladle connected with its elephant-like proboscis. "Git!" She jabbed the knife in her other hand at its place on the bench. "Siddown and you'll get your food soon enough."

"Stupid broad," Tudd muttered.

"I heard that!"

Silver, back to the present, chuckled. She glanced back at him. "Don't be getting any ideas, Silver. Just 'cause you're Captain doesn't mean you get to lick the bowl or anything." She pointed the knife at Silver's seat, her green eye blazing angrily. "Sit."

"She wasn't kidding when she said she could hack it, then," Silver's first mate, a strong young Bugbear from Cygnus IV, chuckled and scratched his beard as Silver sat down next to him.


	2. Suspicious Minds

Sweat beaded on Silver's wrinkled forehead and he leaned, panting slightly, on the tiller of his frigate ship, the _Benbow_. The deep, angry orange light of Ophiuchus Beta seared the ship and a baking stellar wind blasted it with otherworldly force. There was nothing much to do now except ride out the wind. The sails were furled, the bulkheads latched tight and everything that could be roped down had been. Despite the scorching presence of Oph-Beta, it was night and the crew, having been awake for close onto three days preparing for the pass, were exhausted and down in the barracks catching a well-earned forty winks. Silver had put himself in charge of the ship, confident she could weather the stellar storm, as the many ships he had captained in the past had done.

The gust calmed, and he dared himself to take a breath. His lungs filled with burning ash, the top few layers of Oph-Beta's closest planet, and set him coughing.

"Here," a voice bellowed over the wind. It was the deep baritone of his first mate, Leonard. He thumped up beside his captain and held a mug out to him. Puzzled but unable to reply, Silver took it and gulped several mouthfuls down around the coughs. Suddenly, the fierce, knife-like pain in his chest died and a rush of cool shot through him as if a bucket of cold water had been upended over his head.

"From Bonnie," Leonard yelled. "She said it may help with the heat."

Silver swallowed and glanced up at his hulking first mate, a head and a half taller than Silver himself, his face wide and flat, the gorilla-like nose set in a hairy, squinched face with glittering black eyes overshadowed by heavily-furred eyebrows. "Tell 'er thankee from me," Silver shouted back.

"Aye, sir," Leonard barked as he placed another mug carefully down beside the green glowing compass. "That one's for you, too, Cap'n. She said not to worry; it'll stay cool. She also said that there's plenty more below if you need it." Leonard turned and trudged back down below deck, the muscles under his hide rippling powerfully.

Silver peered into his nearly-empty cup. Its contents were an unassuming shade of yellow-brown, quite close to the color of the cheap beer Bonnie had bought. The liquid itself was not cold, but hit his tongue with a deep chill and coated his throat like silk. Its taste was hard for him to place, for it switched between sweet and bitter almost like a hologram. He wondered what the strange little girl had put into this mixture. Surely none of the simple, commonplace ingredients on the ship could have produced something this bizarre.

_Amazing what you find when you explore a new planet every other day,_ he heard her say in his mind. He remembered her regaling him with stories of her adventures with her parents' team of surveyors, and her boasts that she had seen half the galaxy before she was five years old. Silver had asked if she remembered any of it, and she had laughed and shook her head.

He smiled and downed the second cup of cooling liquid in three huge gulps. The drink not only bathed his body with cool comfort but his mind as well, and he felt himself slip into a quiet, contented peace even as Oph-Beta was screaming out its last violent millennia or two of life off the starboard side of the _Benbow_. Gratefully he let his mind wander away from the stresses of maintaining a ship, a crew and evading galactic naval police. He remembered the months he had spent on the _Legacy_, lusting after Flint's Trove and the life of happiness it promised, and, grudgingly at first, making friends with Jim until they were inseparable as father and son. He felt again the cold, hard handfuls of treasure in his hands, and he loved the way his coat pulled on his shoulders as he loaded his pockets with heavy gold. His mind wound back further to when he first became a captain, being only a few years older than Jim had been, feeling ten feet tall and on top of the world. He even remembered his first wife and the brief but wonderful months they had spent being pirates together, two of the most notorious bandits ever to come out of the wild no-man's land of space. Further back in his mind lay the fond memory of his childhood. His mother the ship would rock him to sleep at night, and his father the wind would caress his cheek as he drifted off into his dreams.

"Life's much better with a little extract of Hisciphid in your system, isn't it?" Bonnie's voice reached his ears and jerked him back from his thoughts. He blinked and glanced around him; gone was the roiling, blazing sight of Oph-Beta and gone was the blistering stellar wind. The star still loomed large behind them, but the black drips of turpentine melting from the repaired mast had stopped and some of the crew were now attached to rope ladders, repainting the wood. The sweat had dried in streaks on everyone's body, including Bonnie's. She had shed her father's coat and was dressed in the white tank top and pants Silver had bought her, but she had cut them off just below the knee. Her boots, heavy and black, were untied and scuffed. Her hair, which she had cut before they embarked, was still wet and hung down just above her chin in wavy clumps. Her two-toned eyes were still ringed with sleep-circles and her strong, boxy face seemed haggard and pale, but she was smiling.

She was always smiling.

"I find it helps pass the time too," she said, swishing the liquid around in the small tin mug.

"Aye, it certainly does, lass," he mumbled, wondering how much of life he had missed.

"Ah, don't worry," she said, detecting the uncertainty in his voice. "It didn't put you to sleep or anything. You haven't missed anything. Everyone just now woke up. It's pretty obvious, I think..." she pointed to her face and the bags under her eyes. "I gave the crew some so they could sleep through Oph-Beta. You never came down for dinner, so I never got a chance to get you any. I see Leonard brought yours to you."

"Oi wanted t' stay up here fer me watch," he said, anger suddenly rising in him. "Oi wanted t'be on alert for anyt'in' that could go wrong. Oi was th' on'y one up here, lassie! What woulda happ'ned if somet'in' were to go wrong wid' th' ship an' oi was sittin' here daydreamin' wid' yer foolish Hissa-drink in me system? What if th' 'ole bloody ship were t' get sucked int' Oph-Beta an' th' 'ole bloody crew were asleepin' an' oi were sittin' up 'ere wid me moind in th' clouds? We'd all be nuttin' but space dust, lass! Y' can' jus' send us all t'sleep loike that an' pretend nuttin'll happ'n! Y' coulda gotten us all kilt, y' know that!" Silver shouted down at her, his cyborg eye glowing angry red. How could she be so stupid as to drug the entire crew, including Silver himself, in the midst of one of the most dangerous and delicate maneuvers in space travel?

She seemed to shrink before him and drew her arms tight around herself, backing up several steps. Her eyes grew large and alarmed. She put her hands up, trembling. "I'm— I'm sorry! It wasn't a drug! It didn't do it on purpose, I just thought it would help, I just... I won't do it again!"

"See that ya don't! Now go, get out o' me sight. Oi don' want you t'be cookin' breffast _or_ dinner t'night. Tell one o' th' cabinboys t'do it, an' show 'im where every'tin' is an' such. After ye do that, oi want you up here swabbin' all th' turpentine off th' deck, an' then oi wan' t' see you repaintin' th entoire deck an' th' masts an' th' hull wid more heat resin."

Her shoulders and face fell, but she saluted. "Uh... aye, Cap'n," she spluttered, then turned and skittered away, her shoulders hunched.

-----------------

Silver's hackles were still up by the time the galactic clock struck seven and the crew were piling into the galley for a much-needed meal.

He had trusted the girl, _trusted _her, and what had she gone and done? Slipped some sort of drug into their drinks and made them all stupid. While they were passing a volatile red giant, no less! What was she trying to do? Kill them all? Was she really some agent of the Galactic Naval Police, investigating them undercover with a plan to turn him in as soon as they landed at Geminae Stellae? He growled as he watched three inept cabinboys dish something gloppy out of a pot too small to hold all of it into dozens of bowls, several of which they spilled on the way to the benches. Silver's bowl arrived first, with the gritty stuff running thickly down the sides. He wrinkled his bulbous nose and settled for drinking the little beer that was left in his mug. Despite himself, he missed Bonnie's cooking, which had always been simple but delicious, prepared quickly by skillful hands. The cabinboys finally finished serving the crew, and plopped down in their seats to wolf down their food before they began cleaning up.

Silver surveyed his crew, and found only two empty seats: the watchman's and Bonnie's. Good. As it should be.

No one had asked him where Bonnie had got to; of course most of them had heard Silver's bellows, and those who hadn't certainly had been told in whispers while Silver's back was turned. He tipped his head back and swallowed the last of his beer. Rising from his seat without a word, he stumped out of the galley, pointing a robotic finger at a fat Flatulan thoroughly enjoying a third helping of his dinner. "Ye've got watch next, Rogers."

"Pbthbppbththpthbbbpt!" the creature complained. Silver whipped around, both eyes blazing.

"_Ye got a problem widdat, laddie_!" He roared, and flicked his wrist. Out flashed a deadly scimitar where his cyborg hand used to be, and he bore down dangerously on Rogers' flabby throat.

"Pbbthpththbp pbbtht pbpbthppbthbbthpt!" Rogers blubbered, his tiny eyes wide and frightened. Silver grunted and resumed his thumping walk out of the galley, leaving the crew silent and Rogers trembling so violently his blubbery body sent shockwaves vibrating throughout the ship.

On deck, the sky was deep indigo, but the ship shone brightly with starlight reflected off a shiny new coat of heat resin, a clear liquid that protected the wood of the ship from the deep cold of space and the blazing heat of nearby stars. Silver strode up to the tiller, careful that his cyborg leg did not slip on the still-drying resin. Bonnie was nowhere in sight.

He glanced down at the compass, already set to the gravitational signature of Geminae Stellae. They were on course, approaching the pair of stars from a wide curve, since the violent Crab Nebula was between them and Geminae. He nudged the small afterburner switch down a bit, since they were running low on fuel. They'd have to dock soon. A quick scan of the galactic map, programmed into the ship's navigational system, told Silver the closest system was only four light-days ahead, but out of their way. The next solar system on the way with a feasible port was two light-weeks away. That was too long. He'd just have to go out of his way. With another grunt, he tapped the compass screen and set the new coordinates. The planet was Tereth Three, but the port was located on its moon, Uet. He had been there before. The moon's parent planet was a small but harmonious one, its dominant life form being intelligent horse-like creatures that kept their delicate planet isolated from Uet, which was crawling with pirates, marauders and the normal potpourri of criminals one would find at a galactic port town.

The lookout, a stocky Yarbouchian with legs like a lizard and a beak like a flamingo, slid down the mast, her sticky, padded hands gripping the wood expertly.

"Cheerio, Gov'nah," she tipped a wink to the captain. "End o' me watch, ya know. Gunna get me summa Bonnie's luvverly vi'uws, I am."

"Bonnie ain't cookin' t'night," Silver said flatly, ignoring the creature's wide-mouthed look of shock.

"Good gravy, Gov'nah, it ain' so!"

"'Tis so, an' if you've a moind t' keep yore mouth, you'd do well t'shut it an' get outta me earshot," Silver snarled.

"Aye, Gov'nah!" The Yarbouchian jogged away nervously.

No sooner had the pattering footsteps of the lookout left Silver's ears than a pair of hands gripped the starboard edge of the deck. Silver heard frantic scrabbling sounds as Bonnie heaved herself up onto the deck, a matted paintbrush clenched between her teeth and a bucket swinging on her wrist. She lay and caught her breath with her feet trailing off into space for a few moments, then drug herself up and began hauling in the platform she had been sitting on while she painted the sides of the ship. Silver watched her silently from the forecastle, a frown on his face, careful to catch any suspicious move she made.

She heaved the workbench on board and drug it to its place, unaware that she was being watched. Rogers, the next watchman, squelched up from below and blew a noise in Bonnie's direction, to which she responded with a curt nod. Was that a nod between two fellow mutineers? He'd question Rogers later.

Ignoring Silver, Rogers boarded a platform, which he hoisted on a pulley to take him up to the crow's nest. Silver watched him carefully, but he did not look Bonnie's way again. Bonnie stowed the bucket, the paintbrush and a mop she had been using for the deck in a small closet and heaved a deep, tired sigh. Instead of plodding down to the barracks, she leaned on the port railing of the ship and gazed out at the stars. It took Silver a minute to realize she was humming again. This one was new. She hummed all the time, but the songs were all different, and he could not recognize any of them. He knit his brows. Were the songs some sort of code or message to the mutineers? Going by the crew's squawky renditions of old sea shanties, they couldn't carry a tune if they had had a bucket. Maybe Bonnie's hums were just to calm her nervousness at keeping a mutiny or an investigation undercover for so long.

The door below deck opened, and a cabinboy trotted out, his arms full of a tray with a bowl and a cup on it. Bonnie stopped humming and turned. Silver opened his cyborg eye wide and centered the crosshairs on Bonnie and the cabinboy, zooming in close. "This is for you, Miss Bonnie," the gangly boy said and held out the tray to her, which she took with a grateful smile.

"Thankee kindly, Jonas," she said softly. "But please, stop calling me 'Miss'."

"Aww shucks, Miss Bonnie," Jonas blushed and scuffed his foot on the deck, "I can't let my good ol' ma's parentin' lessons go all to waste, can I?"

Bonnie chuckled and ruffled the young boy's hair. "Well, I suppose not. You can all me 'Miss' if you must."

"I must, Miss, I must," Jonas grinned. "Oh, I hope you like the stew. I'm 'fraid me an' Grey an' Matthew are not near as good at cookin' as you."

Bonnie took a sip of the thick mess in her bowl and smiled. "Well, you did your best, Jonas, and that's all anyone can ask. Besides, there's always room to get better." She gently set the bowl on the tray and picked up her mug.

"Aye, Miss."

"Get on to bed now. Busy day tomorrow."

"When is there ever a day that's not busy?" Jonas joked.

"Never, when you're on this ship," Bonnie chuckled.

"No, not with that slavedriver of a cap'n. He runs all of us ragged."

Silver smiled and sneered at the same time.

"That's just his way. He's a salty old pirate, doesn't care about anything but piratin' and getting what he wants."

Righteous anger flared in Silver, though he knew she was right.

"Aye, Miss. I was afeared for you earlier today when the Cap'n shouted at you. I myself personally enjoyed those drinks you made us. They helped us a lot with sleepin' through that supernova an' all."

"Well thankee kindly. I'm glad at least two of us enjoyed it."

They laughed and Jonas dipped a bow to Bonnie before loping back down below. Bonnie took a long pull from her mug, smacked her lips and sighed, turning back to the empty expanse of space.

Silver pulled his eye back from its magnified level and blinked, latching the tiny flaps down again. Nothing suspicious about that, he grudgingly agreed with himself. His instinct kept telling him that Bonnie was as innocent as the day they had met, but the doubt clouding his mind made him blame it on his softness. He had been soft with Jim, and had barely avoided being caught. Now it was happening again. Though he had never regretted for an instant caring for the boy, it did not help his image any to be seen coddling a little orphan girl, just because she made good cornbread. Maybe it was because he was getting old too. He had refused to admit it, but he was no spring chicken anymore. When people got old, they got soft. But not him. Not Cap'n Long John Silver, the most fearsome scourge of the seas since Cap'n Nathaniel Flint.

As much as he tried to convince himself that for once, his gut reaction was wrong, it simply wouldn't stick. He had trusted her from the moment they had met, which he had rarely, if ever done before. And his gut had never told him to do otherwise.

Bonnie suddenly caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye and jumped, stumbling back over a pile of rope.

"Silver! I— I didn't know you were out here!" She cast around frantically for help, but there was no one else on deck, save for Rogers, snoring loudly up in the crow's nest. "I— I finished with the heat resin. I did the whole deck, all three masts, the bowsprit, and the entire hull. There were a lot of barnacles, so I had to take care of them too... I got all the barnacles off and then I did the resin on the keel..." Her voice trailed off, and she gulped.

Silver didn't know if her reaction was from fear of exposing her mutiny or just the fear of another verbal bashing. He stepped off the forecastle and approached her warily, his face expressionless. Bonnie looked down at herself as Silver shot a red beam from his eye onto her.

"Hey!" She squeaked and crossed her hands over her chest. "There's nothing _there_ for you to see!"

"Oi hear th' crew thurr'ly enjoyed yore little potion. Said it put 'em roight t'sleep," he snapped, settling his fists on his hips.

She threw her hands up. "Silver, I swear it wasn't a sleeping potion or anything! It was just some Hisciphid root! It's a plant that grows on some planets that calms you down. I just ground it up and put a pinch in everyone's beer! I told them what it was, and that they'd feel better. I thought I was doing everyone a favor! Silver, we'd all been awake for almost three days straight. Do you honestly believe we'd have been any more alert? Half the crew were falling asleep on their feet anyway! You said yourself they needed sleep, and I just thought it'd help them drift off. I didn't put as much in your cup when I made some for you, because I _knew _you'd want to be more awake! I'm sorry I didn't tell Leonard to tell you what was in it. I truly am sorry. I won't do it again." She gazed up at him imploringly.

The gears in his mind stuck, spitting and grinding noisily. Which part of him should he believe? His rational mind, which told him Bonnie was much too skittish and nervous to be telling the truth, or his deep intuition, on which he had relied all his life, which told her she was honest, just intimidated by him?

"Silver, please believe me. I really wasn't trying to do anything or kill anybody. I was just trying to help."

His supersensitive cyborg eye did not detect any sweat on her or swelling of her pupils, nor did his mechanical ear hear any increase in the already quick thump-thump of her heartbeat. His laser roved over her face and he watched her reaction carefully. She just stared up into his normal eye, both of hers wide and pleading. She flinched when he shone it in her eye, but did nothing when he cast it down her front and her legs, looking for a concealed knife or pistol.

"There's nothing, Silver. I promise. You can go ask the crew. Ask Leonard. I wasn't planning anything, if that's what you think." Her voice and her eyes hardened with the force of conviction. Silver switched off his laser and sighed.

"Seein' as how oi c'n spot nuttin' amiss, yore free t'go back to th' galley t'morrow an' resume yore duties as cook. But oi'll be searchin' th' kitchen for anyt'in' out o' th' ordinary." Silver narrowed his eyes.

Bonnie shrugged. "Do as you like."

"An' yore comin' wid me." he beckoned her with a metal finger.

"Fine," she said. "But if you please, Cap'n, I'd like to get a bit of sleep, because, as you know, I've been up here all day long repainting the entire ship." Her captivating eyes blazed for an instant.

"We'll jus' see how long this takes." He grabbed her arm roughly and drug her down to the galley.


	3. Uet

The moon Uet, honeycombed with streets, buildings and wharves, filled the crew's vision as the helmsman steered the ship into port with expert skill. The deck of the _Benbow_ was alive with her crew hauling on rope, scrambling in the rigging, opening re-entry flaps on the ship's deck and hull, and everything else that needed to be done. Leonard stood aft, barking orders, as Silver prowled amidships.

"Steady on the capstan, mates! Let the anchor out slowly!"

"Th' jib's out there flappin' in th' breeze, ya buncha lubbers! Haul it in or oi'll haul you to th' brig!"

The ship scooted smoothly into port and the crew, hungry and weary, gathered on the starboard rail, waiting eagerly for the gangplank to begin its descent onto firm ground. Bonnie was among them, Silver noted, but her expression of rigid shock stuck out like a sore thumb among the faces of relief and gratitude. She leaned out far over the railing; half of her body was parallel with the ground. Her wide, disbelieving eyes were locked on the planet, huge and hazy in the sky. Something was definitely going on.

He approached her as the crew shoved and jostled down the gangplank, and stopped her with a heavy metal hand on her shoulder. She whipped around, her expression changing little.

"Yore not goin' nowhere, lassie," he snarled. "Ye've got anchor watch."

Horror flashed bright in her eyes and she opened her mouth to protest, but it snapped shut quickly. Her head went down. "Aye aye, Cap'n," she mumbled, the sound of defeat dragging like molasses through her voice. Silver allowed himself an inner smile of triumph; he had foiled whatever it was she had planned, or, at least part of it. He called Leonard over from where the huge creature was about to disembark, and leaned in close to his pointed, furry ear.

"Keep a sharp eye on Bonnie, lad. Oi wants t' know if she does any t'ing out o' th' ordinary. Oi won't be far, jus' down that road there, gettin' more fuel for th' ship an' a few other t'ings."

Leonard saluted obediently. "Aye, sir."

Silver nodded gruffly once, turned, and stepped off the ship.

The port on Uet, much like Tramuth, rarely saw merchant or military ships make berth, but Silver had still warned his crew as they disembarked on their day-long furlough. The _Benbow_'s pirate flag had been hauled in and replaced with a banner stolen from the Magellanic Trading Company. Most of the ships docked sported merchant or planetary flags, though one had but to peer behind a barrel or under a bench on any ship, and there would likely be a black bundle of canvas; a pirate flag.

The nature of the spacers populating Uet was obvious enough to anyone with a nose and half an ear. Rank with smoke and drenched in grog, Uet bore an atmosphere of sound nearly raucous enough to negate the effects of gravity. It kept honest spacers well at bay, and only attracted those as saturated in sin as the moon itself.

Silver watched his crew disperse into the ebb and flow of creatures on the dock, some ducking into the nearest pub they could find, others glancing furtively behind them as they slipped into a back alley, arm in arm with a painted lady. He trundled off into the thick of the crowd, reminding himself to find a new part for his mechanical knee. It was getting stiff.

He had not been to Uet in several years, but not much had changed. He could still find the drunken Altairian that sold both rocket fuel and grog, and Silver was still convinced that there was no difference between the two. He paid the wavering creature at the counter for one cylinder of compressed fuel and walked out with four of the smallish containers, stuffing them quickly into the haversack slung across his chest. It would probably take the elephant-skinned, six-eyed being several hours to realize Silver had swindled him. Plenty of time for him to disappear.

"Cap'n, sir!" Leonard's voice sounded behind him. He turned round and saw the bugbear edging delicately through the crowd, head and shoulders above all of them. He better not have left Bonnie alone on board the ship.

"Aye, lad, what is it?" Silver's eye switched on, and he scanned his first mate for anything that might give away Bonnie's escape.

"It's Bonnie, sir," Leonard said, but his expression betrayed nothing more than well-concealed uneasiness. She had not escaped, Silver knew that much. "She has asked your humble permission to visit the planet Tereth Three. She promises that it will be a quick visit and she will be back before dark tonight."

Silver narrowed his eyes. He had been expecting this.

"Did she tell ye why, laddie?"

Leonard shrugged. "She just said she had friends there."

Silver nodded. He had heard all this before. But it seemed odd that she had chosen the peace-loving inhabitants of Tereth Three as accomplices in whatever she was planning. Of course, the horse-creatures would probably like to see such a dangerous pirate as Silver dangling on the end of a rope as much as the rest of the galaxy. Silver had never been to the planet himself, so he did not know just how "peaceful" these creatures actually were. He stroked his stubbly chin.

"Ye didn't leave her alone on board, didja, lad?"

"No sir. I left her with Liza." The gabby Yarbouchian. "Oh, and speaking of her, sir, Bonnie said that Liza was willing to take over anchor watch while she was gone. Bonnie also said that if it would make you feel better, you or I could accompany her down to the planet. I honestly don't know what she's planning, Cap'n, but if she's prepared for one of us to go with her, I can't see how it could be a mutiny."

"An' she didn' tell ye exackly why she wanted t' go daown t' th' planet?" Silver's mind worked furiously.

"No, sir, she just said she wanted to visit her friends. She also mentioned distant family."

The gears in Silver's mind ground loudly. "Distant fam'ly?"

"Aye, Cap'n."

This curve Silver could not quite hit. He burned his red metal eye into Leonard's forehead, but the bugbear's steadfastness convinced Silver that he was wise enough not to get involved in Bonnie's plan. That was good.

"Roight then, lad. Oi got t'ings t' do jus' now, but oi wan' _you _t' take 'er to th' planet. If it's _you_, mayhap she won' be as skittish as if t'were me goin' wid 'er."

Leonard nodded, seeing Silver's wisdom.

"But oi don' wan' ya _ever_ t' let 'er out o' yer sight, ye hear? _Never._" Silver jabbed a cyborg finger at his first mate.

"Aye, Cap'n."

"Oi wan' ye t' watch ev'ry move she makes an' report back t' me. Oi wants t' know where ye dock, who 'er so-called 'friends' are, where ye go, who takes ye dere, ev'ryt'ing. Oi wants details o' ev'ry breath she takes an' ev'ry toime she blinks. Got it, laddie?"

"Aye, Cap'n." Leonard rumbled down at Silver.

"Good lad. Stay wid 'er on th' ship when ye return an' wait fer me an' th' crew."

"Aye, Cap'n."

"Off ye go." Silver waved a hand.

The massive bugbear bowed lightly to his captain and, without another word, turned and maneuvered back through the drunken crowd with an agility that belied his ungainly bulk. Silver watched him go, confident for once in his mate. Leonard had yet to prove himself worthy of Silver's trust, and this was his chance. He didn't realize it, of course, which made it all the more important that he succeed. The last person Silver had trusted in any measure was Jim Hawkins, but that wasn't good enough. Silver needed a spacer, both young and experienced, on whom he could depend through good tides and bad. He wasn't denying it: he was getting old, and he needed a first mate, strong and wise, to eventually take his place. The salty old captain sensed great potential in the young bugbear, who had never been on dry land for longer than a week in his entire life.

Leonard disappeared around the corner, heading back toward the _Benbow_'s berth. Silver's knee needed attention, and he thought he remembered a blacksmith with a set of cyborg legs of his own. Daring to go back the way he came, Silver turned and passed the Altairian's shop and suppressed a smile when he saw the drunk sleeping in a puddle of his own drool at the counter.

He spent the night with a young woman, raven-haired and olive-skinned, just like his wife had been. He tried to find one at every port, but there wasn't always a woman that met his expectations. He got lucky this time. The last time he had found someone he liked was the night before he met Bonnie. The woman that night had been shorter and had lighter eyes than his wife, but her rich, wavy hair shone like a raven's wing in the sun, and he had but to close his eyes and he could feel his wife's fingernails on his back again and her slim, lithe body against his. He fell into that memory as the woman tonight worked her magic on him, and he began to relax.

But when Bonnie's face suddenly appeared in front of him when it should have been his wife's, he snapped his eyes open and sat bolt upright, nearly sending the whore tumbling off the bed. Ignoring her gentle but empty words of reassurance, he sat silently on the edge of the bed until she gave up and fell asleep. He lay awake next to her for a long time, but when he finally drifted off into darkness, it was his wife, her wide-brimmed hat cocked rakishly to the side, that haunted his dreams once again.

-------------------------------

He woke up feeling much better. As he dressed, he admired the sleeping woman's body under the sheet and almost changed his mind about leaving her without finishing what they had started last night, but even though it would be months before they'd see land again, he wanted to get back to his ship. He shrugged into his long coat, giving her a last long look and slipped out of the cheap hotel room without paying her.

The twin suns shining on Tereth and Uet had cleared the western horizon, but Silver knew he would be the first one back on the ship besides Leonard and Bonnie. He walked tall on his new knee, with his three-cornered hat low over his eyes to shield them from the burning suns.

The welcome sight of his ship looming large and stately over the creatures milling about the port made his heart swell. The _Benbow_ was just how he had left her, ready for his return. There had been no mutiny during the night, no secret attempt to steal the ship. He had been worried that Bonnie would use this opportunity to stage her mutiny against him, but Leonard, already lowering the gangplank for his captain, had kept her reined in.

"Ahoy, Cap'n," Leonard shouted down as Silver stepped onto the gangplank. Bonnie was nowhere in sight. "Glad t'be back on board?"

"Always am, laddie," Silver smiled and gripped Leonard's outstretched hand with his mechanical one, and shook it firmly once, then clamped it down on his mate's left shoulder, as Leonard did the same. "Where's our Bonnie lass?"

Leonard chuckled and jabbed a sausagey thumb back over his shoulder. "Asleep down in the barracks."

"Wid no one watchin' 'er?" Silver's eye flared red.

Leonard put his hands up. "Don't worry, Cap'n. There's no mutiny, I promise."

"Then what 'n th' name o' Ringeye Bill's booty happ'ned down on Tereth?" Silver shouted.

"Cap'n, I think that would be best explained once we're underway. It's a long story, and one I think you'll want to hear uninterrupted." Leonard sighed, his shoulders hunched.


	4. Steady As We Go

Leonard eased the door closed to the captain's quarters, locking himself and Silver inside. Silver sat behind the desk he never used, and Leonard squeezed into a rickety chair facing him.

"So laddie," Silver said, leaning his elbows on the desk and interlacing his robotic fingers with his normal ones in front of him, "are ye gonna tell me what happ'ned 'r do oi haffta dangle ye from th' boom fer awhoile?" The dangerous calm in Silver's drawl had its intended effect; Leonard swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

"Well, Cap'n, after I talked to you, I went back to the ship and told Bonnie she could go. She might as well have been a kid at Christmas, because she just jumped up and hugged me and thanked me, just on and on, how happy she was." Leonard shook his head bemusedly. "So we took a longboat down to the planet, but she wouldn't let me land just anywhere. She told me there was only a certain place they'd let her go, and by 'they' I suppose she meant the Equuiranh."

"Equa-who?" Silver cocked an eyebrow. He never knew the horse-beings on Tereth Three had a name.

"Equuiranh. They look like horses, but they have toes, and they're taller than normal. They're almost as tall as me at the shoulder. But they're very secretive, it turns out. Bonnie made me orbit the planet for an hour before she found a place we could land. Apparently, the Equuiranh have this sort of force-field or barrier set up around Tereth, and only those who have been there before know where the 'door' is, I suppose. So we landed in this huge, grassy field with an Uka forest on one side, you know, those tall trees that look like huge mushrooms? Well, Bonnie told me to stay in the boat, that the Equuiranh already knew we were here and were testing us. So we sat there and waited for several minutes. Bonnie sat patiently, but I could tell she really wanted to get out and see whoever she had come to see. When I started tapping my foot, she told me to stop, that patience was part of the test. When I asked her to tell me more, she just shushed me. Eventually, I heard a noise coming from the Uka trees. It sounded sort of like a zebris, that kind of whooping bray. Bonnie stood up in the boat, smiling like you wouldn't believe, and returned the call. Then, two or three Equuiranh galloped out of the trees toward us. Bonnie said to stay in the boat, that they'd tell us when to get out. I have to say Cap'n, right then, I wasn't concentrated on Bonnie. It was those Equuiranh that I was looking at. They were huge. They told us in perfect English that we could get out of the boat, and when Bonnie ran up and hugged one, the top of her head was just even with the creature's chest."

"She _hugged _one?"

"Aye, Cap'n. She knew them."

"Were these 'er friends that she was goin' on about?"

"Yessir. There were three of them, two bigger than the third one. The two bigger ones looked like brothers, because they were the same shade of pale yellow, the color of the grass. The third smaller one was a darker brownish-yellow, and that one was the one she knew. She called him Cato, and the brothers were Khesari and Karvo. All three of them had three toes on each foot, and each toe looked like a miniature hoof. Cato walked with a limp, and was missing the dewclaw on his left hind leg. He was chatty with Bonnie, and they seemed to really know each other. Khesari and Karvo were obviously sent to watch me, even though Bonnie made sure to tell Cato that I was with her. They walked on both sides of me as we left the boat and walked a long way into the Uka forest. Neither of them said a word. Cato and Bonnie walked ahead of the brothers and me, and as we walked I listened to Bonnie and Cato talk. They reminisced about the last time they had met, and talked about Bonnie's parents. As far as I could figure, Bonnie and her parents had visited Tereth before, several times, and that was how Cato knew her."

Silver nodded. "Aye, she told me her parents were in a crew o' pioneers by trade, goin' round, sniffin' out th' lay o' th' land on other planets."

"Oh, aye, that would explain the bit about a young botanist accidentally falling into a thicket of cacti. I thought it was just her and her parents."

So far, this story had all the makings of a heartwarming reunion between old friends and none of the makings of a secret meeting of conspirators planning to capture him and his crew. But Silver refused to jump to conclusions. There was always a flick of the hand or a wink that gave it away. "So where was th' distant fam'ly she was talkin' 'bout, lad?"

"I was getting to that. So then Cato asked Bonnie who I was, and she told him I was her friend, introduced me as Leonard, the first mate aboard the _Benbow_, and told him she was the master cook. She didn't mention you or the _Benbow_ being a pirate vessel. But Cato laughed and said the spacers aboard our ship must be the best fed in the galaxy. Then they talked more about Bonnie being the cook for her parents, and all the funny things they used to do. Then Cato asked what the occasion was for Bonnie's visit, and at first she didn't say anything. She turned around and looked at me, with this expression on her face that said 'Please don't tell anyone about this'."

Silver grinned. This was what he had been expecting. "So what did she say, laddie?" He leaned forward.

"Well, she didn't actually say anything. She just looked at Cato and he seemed to know what she wanted. The smile left Cato's face and he nodded, then he turned and led us south, off the path in the forest."

Silver had to bite back the urge to yell at Leonard to get on with it.

"We cleared the forest and were in another wide-open space, but it was hillier than the field in which we had landed, and it was not naturally open. The trees had been cut and right in the middle of the clearing was a small log building, square, with a thatched roof. I couldn't imagine how the Equuiranh could have built this thing with no hands, but there it was, big enough for maybe two Equuiranh to fit inside. There were a lot of plants: bushes, flowers, shrubs and things, that made a small fence, sort of, behind the building. There were no windows in the building, only just an opening for a door on two opposite walls, like you could walk right through the building into the garden or whatever it was on the other side. I couldn't see what was on the other side, except for those plants. There were plants there that I had never seen before, some so wild I never even knew they could exist. But I was confused at this point; did Bonnie drag me all this way just to visit a garden?

"All four of them were very quiet as they approached the little cabin, but I could not see the expression on Bonnie's face. There was no one else around, and even the brothers watching me let down their guard; I could feel it.

"So we stopped at the entrance to the hut, and I smelled several different kinds of food... I smelled meat, at least three different kinds of bread, cheese, all kinds of fruits and things. I could just barely see inside the hut, which had shelves from the floor to the ceiling, covered with food. And not just food! I saw a shovel, several glass bottles, two backpacks, a rifle hanging above the lintel, just... everything. But what got me was what was in the garden. We stood in front of the doorway, and there was another doorway at the back wall like I said before, and I could see out into the garden. It wasn't a garden, because all the plants just made a fence around this one area behind the hut, and in the middle of that small grassy place was a gravestone. I couldn't read what was on the stone, but before I could, Bonnie stepped into the hut, and Cato followed her. They stayed in the hut for several minutes, but I couldn't see what they were doing. The suns were bright outside and it was dim in the hut. I smelled incense, and then I heard them talking. I couldn't hear all of it, but I heard my name, and by my reckoning, they were trying to decide whether I'd be allowed in the hut or not. They turned round, and Cato glanced at the two brothers, who bowed their heads and walked away. Bonnie said I could come in, and I did.

"I looked all around the hut, which had no furniture, just those shelves. There were six levels of shelves going up the wall, all filled with things, just everyday things: pots and pans, dried flowers, a rock with a crystal in it, a toy ship, logbooks, clothes... basically, someone's whole life was in this hut. But there was nothing that gave me any clue whose life it was, no photographs, no heirlooms, nothing with a name. But none of it needed a name, Cato suddenly said, as if reading my mind. He told me that if I looked close enough, the name would appear in the fibers of that shirt, or the rust marks on that pot, or the scratches on that pair of spectacles. Nothing in the hut was nameless, quite the contrary. He told me all of it simply vibrated with the name of the person who had once used that rifle and had read that book.

"I looked at Bonnie, and she was staring straight ahead, out at the gravestone in the little courtyard, everything about her totally blank and silent. I asked Cato who it was that had owned all these things, and he just told me to follow Bonnie. She stepped out of the hut into the sun, and I followed her to the graveside. The stone was just a simple one, rounded at the top, like you'd expect, and all it said was 'GEORGINA WHITLAW PUCKETT, Steady As We Go'."

Silver had a good hunch who it was that slept with the worms, but that still did not explain the mutiny. He kept quiet, waiting for someone in Leonard's story to melt out of the trees with an armful of weapons and a conniving grin.

"Bonnie went over to one of the plants, a big bushy affair with flowers as big as my hand, and I let her borrow my switchblade to cut one. She snipped it right off and laid it down on the grave. She turned back to face me and gave my knife back, and I saw she was crying. She smiled a little, and right then, it was amazing the difference between her green eye and her grey one. The grey one was dull, didn't even reflect the sunlight. If it didn't move with the other one, I'd have thought it wasn't real. But the green one was just shining and sparkling and more than made up for the other one. I can't describe it, Cap'n, I really can't. Her green eye was the only one that shed tears, but it shed a lot of them.

"She knelt beside the flower, a big orange and yellow one, and kissed the stone, right by the name Georgina. Then she said 'Hi Ma, howzit hangin'?' Now, I had an idea since I saw the name on the marker that that's who it was, but it hit me hard anyway. I felt that lump in my throat, Cap'n, and even Cato behind me was misty-eyed."

Silver sighed. One puzzle solved, dozens more to go.

"She knelt and talked to her mum for a while. I even thought at one point she had fallen asleep, but when I put my hand on her shoulder, she jumped and looked up at me like I had scared her. I asked her if everything was okay, because she had stopped crying, and she said yes, that she was almost ready to leave. I had been about to say that, because the suns were setting, and she had promised to be back before dark. Cato told me to let her be and brought me back into the hut. Despite myself, Cap'n, all the questions just started pouring out of me. I wanted to know how her mum died, where her dad was, what they looked like, how she had come to be buried here, how old she was, what the epitaph on her stone meant, her entire story, and Bonnie's too. But Cato just laughed and shushed me. He said that it was not his place to tell, that only Bonnie should tell that, and she'd do it when she wanted to. We waited a bit more for Bonnie, and then she stood up and came back in the hut, smiling again, and said that she was ready to go in that chirpy little voice of hers, as if nothing had happened. Cato led us out of the hut and back into the woods, trying to convince Bonnie and me to come visit his town. But Bonnie shook her head and I said that we had to be back to our ship by dark. Cato nodded and just took us back to the longboat. We took off, and Bonnie just waved goodbye. Cato shook his mane and brayed, and then the clouds covered him up.

"Bonnie was her normal self on the ride back. She gabbed on and on about her mum, how good she was to Bonnie, how much fun they had, you name it. She didn't seem sad at all, which surprised me. She smiled and laughed like nothing had happened. So we got back aboard the _Benbow, _and Bonnie suddenly told me she was tired and went straight to bed. I followed her down, just to be safe, and before she fell asleep, she told me to tell you thank you for letting her go, and she hoped that you'd be less suspicious of her after I told you what happened. Oh, and she also said that you'd probably want these. I forgot to tell you." Leonard dug in the massive pocket of his leather jerkin and laid two daggers in leather sheaths on the desk. Silver blinked. The sheaths were undecorated, just two pieces of tanned leather stitched roughly together, the points frayed and the edges near the hilt curled back from years of use. The daggers were small for his and Leonard's hands, but for someone like Bonnie, they were large and heavy, perfectly weighted for throwing. Silver pulled one out of its casing and examined the plain wood handle, willing to bet his good leg it would fit Bonnie's grip perfectly.

"Cato gave Bonnie those when we were in the hut the first time. They used to be her mother's, but Cato said her mother wouldn't find much use for them now."

"Aye, she wouldn't," Silver mumbled, half-closing his natural eye and letting his red laser wander over the sleek, flawless surface of the blade. It was unassuming, with no decoration on the hilt, no swirling flourishes on the blade, but splendidly forged and expertly shaped. The metal was diamond-hard and glossy, and was kept sharp enough to bury itself up to the hilt in the wall beside Leonard's head.

"G-good aim, C-cap'n," Leonard spluttered.

Silver sighed. "Did Bonnie give ye these, lad?"

Leonard quickly composed himself. "Aye, Cap'n. Cato gave them to her, and she kept them with her until we got out of sight of Cato, and then she gave them to me without me asking for them. I was going to take them from her while she was sleeping, but she just took them out and handed them to me and said that you'd probably not like her having them. She said you could keep them, but just don't get rid of them. They are very special to her."

"D'ye know if she can use 'em?"

"No, Cap'n, I don't know."

The knives, one in its sheath and one glinting bare on the desk, seemed to gaze up at him, chanting all the riddles in his mind that could not be answered and holding the answers just out of his reach.

It all seemed to jibe. Nothing was suspicious, nothing was wrong. Leonard had done his duty and told the truth; Silver's close watch had seen to that. Bonnie did what she was told, did not put up a fuss, and made sure to keep Leonard close by so he could hear all there was to hear and see all there was to see, to prove to Silver she had nothing to hide. But Silver could not convince himself to believe all the evidence around him. His gut still told him it all jibed for a reason: Bonnie was not planning a mutiny; she really had put that herb in his drink just to help him relax. She had been eager to go to the planet not to scheme in secrecy, but to visit old friends and pay her respects to her mother.

There was a soft rap on the door, followed by a tiny voice: "Cap'n, sir? Should I start breakfast, or d'you want the cabinboys to do it again?"

Leonard glanced at Silver. "If I have to eat Matthew's cooking again, you might very well be without a first mate, Cap'n."

"You go ahead, lassie," he called, the daggers on his desk seeming to draw his eyes toward them.

"Aye, Cap'n."


End file.
